Islam is the major religion in many African countries, especially in the north of the continent. In Comoros, Libya, Western Sahara, at least 99 percent of the population was Muslim as of 202. These were the highest percentages on the continent. However, also in many other African nations, the majority of the population was Muslim. In Egypt, for instance, Islam was the religion of 79 percent of the people. Islam and other religions in Africa Africa accounts for an important share of the world’s Muslim population. As of 2019, 16 percent of the Muslims worldwide lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 20 percent of them lived in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Together with Christianity, Islam is the most common religious affiliation in Africa, followed by several traditional African religions. Although to a smaller extent, numerous other religions are practiced on the continent: these include Judaism, the Baha’i Faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Number of Muslims worldwide Islam is one of the most widespread religions in the world. There are approximately 1.9 billion Muslims globally, with the largest Muslim communities living in the Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, Indonesia hosts the highest number of Muslims worldwide, amounting to over 200 million, followed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Islam is also present in Europe and America. The largest Islamic communities in Europe are in France (5.72 million), Germany (4.95 million), and the United Kingdom (4.13 million). In the United States, there is an estimated number of around 3.45 million Muslims.

In 1800, the population of the area of modern-day Bangladesh was estimated to be just over 19 million, a figure which would rise steadily throughout the 19th century, reaching over 26 million by 1900. At the time, Bangladesh was the eastern part of the Bengal region in the British Raj, and had the most-concentrated Muslim population in the subcontinent's east. At the turn of the 20th century, the British colonial administration believed that east Bengal was economically lagging behind the west, and Bengal was partitioned in 1905 as a means of improving the region's development. East Bengal then became the only Muslim-majority state in the eastern Raj, which led to socioeconomic tensions between the Hindu upper classes and the general population. Bengal Famine During the Second World War, over 2.5 million men from across the British Raj enlisted in the British Army and their involvement was fundamental to the war effort. The war, however, had devastating consequences for the Bengal region, as the famine of 1943-1944 resulted in the deaths of up to three million people (with over two thirds thought to have been in the east) due to starvation and malnutrition-related disease. As the population boomed in the 1930s, East Bengal's mismanaged and underdeveloped agricultural sector could not sustain this growth; by 1942, food shortages spread across the region, millions began migrating in search of food and work, and colonial mismanagement exacerbated this further. On the brink of famine in early-1943, authorities in India called for aid and permission to redirect their own resources from the war effort to combat the famine, however these were mostly rejected by authorities in London. While the exact extent of each of these factors on causing the famine remains a topic of debate, the general consensus is that the British War Cabinet's refusal to send food or aid was the most decisive. Food shortages did not dissipate until late 1943, however famine deaths persisted for another year. Partition to independence Following the war, the movement for Indian independence reached its final stages as the process of British decolonization began. Unrest between the Raj's Muslim and Hindu populations led to the creation of two separate states in1947; the Muslim-majority regions became East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now Pakistan), separated by the Hindu-majority India. Although East Pakistan's population was larger, power lay with the military in the west, and authorities grew increasingly suppressive and neglectful of the eastern province in the following years. This reached a tipping point when authorities failed to respond adequately to the Bhola cyclone in 1970, which claimed over half a million lives in the Bengal region, and again when they failed to respect the results of the 1970 election, in which the Bengal party Awami League won the majority of seats. Bangladeshi independence was claimed the following March, leading to a brutal war between East and West Pakistan that claimed between 1.5 and three million deaths in just nine months. The war also saw over half of the country displaced, widespread atrocities, and the systematic rape of hundreds of thousands of women. As the war spilled over into India, their forces joined on the side of Bangladesh, and Pakistan was defeated two weeks later. An additional famine in 1974 claimed the lives of several hundred thousand people, meaning that the early 1970s was one of the most devastating periods in the country's history. Independent Bangladesh In the first decades of independence, Bangladesh's political hierarchy was particularly unstable and two of its presidents were assassinated in military coups. Since transitioning to parliamentary democracy in the 1990s, things have become comparatively stable, although political turmoil, violence, and corruption are persistent challenges. As Bangladesh continues to modernize and industrialize, living standards have increased and individual wealth has risen. Service industries have emerged to facilitate the demands of Bangladesh's developing economy, while manufacturing industries, particularly textiles, remain strong. Declining fertility rates have seen natural population growth fall in recent years, although the influx of Myanmar's Rohingya population due to the displacement crisis has seen upwards of one million refugees arrive in the country since 2017. In 2020, it is estimated that Bangladesh has a population of approximately 165 million people.

In 2022, Indonesia has the largest population of Muslims worldwide with around 241.5 million. This was followed with around 225.6 million Muslims in Pakistan and 211.16 million Muslims in India.

With almost all major religions being practiced throughout the country, India is known for its religious diversity. Islam makes up the highest share among minority faiths in the country. According to the Indian census of 2011, the Muslim population in Uttar Pradesh more than 35 million, making it the state with the most Muslims.

Socio-economic conditions of Muslims
Muslims seem to lag behind every other religious community in India in terms of living standards, financial stability, education and other aspects, thereby showing poor performance in most of the fields. According to a national survey, 17 percent of the Muslims were categorized under the lowest wealth index, which indicates poor socio-economic conditions.

Growth of Muslim population in India
Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions worldwide. According to India’s census, the Muslim population has witnessed a negative decadal growth of more than 16 percent from 1951 to 1960, presumably due to the partitions forming Pakistan and Bangladesh. The population showed a positive and steady growth since 1961, making up 14 percent of the total population of India . Even though people following Islam were estimated to grow significantly, they would still remain a minority in India compared to 1.3 billion Hindus by 2050.

Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Bangladesh Christian Mission

When asked about their personal attitude towards various religions in Australia, 40 percent of Australians surveyed had a negative attitude towards Muslims. Buddhists appeared to be least likely to elicit negative responses and around 14 percent of respondents responded negatively to Christians.

 Islam in Australia

Muslims represent almost a quarter of the religious diversity in the Asia Pacific region and Australia’s neighbor, Indonesia, has the largest Muslim population in the world. In Australia, Islam is the second largest religious group but less than three percent of the population are Muslim, compared to over 50 percent of the population identifying as Christian. The Australian Muslim community is very diverse, consisting of migrants from Bangladesh, Lebanon, Turkey, as well as Australian-born Muslims of European heritage.

 Australians increasingly less religious

The 2016 Australian census revealed that an ever-increasing number of Australians are selecting “no religion” in the optional census question on religious affiliation. This drop in religious affiliation is a common trend in many economically developed countries, although some of Australia’s minority religions like Islam and Buddhism are still showing some growth. In contrast, Christianity appears to be declining, especially amongst people under the age of 35, an age group that also recorded higher numbers of people with no religion.

Transnational practices in local settings: Experiences of local citizenship among Bangladesh-origin Muslims in London and Birmingham is a project funded by the ESRC, investigating the relationship between local and transnational citizenship experiences among Bangladesh-origin Muslims in the diaspora in London (Tower Hamlets and Luton) and Birmingham. The access to education, employment, housing, healthcare and local political processes was examined. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Bengali families in the form of same-sex parent/child dyads in Tower Hamlets, Luton and Birmingham. The use of same-sex parent-child dyads will help draw out generational dimensions and focus the issues of continuity and change over time. oral history interviews and civil society interviews were conducted in each location, producing a total of interviews, complemented by ethnographic observation with the Bangladeshi community in both field sites. NVivo software was used for data analysis.

'Transnational citizenship' (Baubock, 1994; Fox, 2005) has been conceptualised to reflect the processes through which political identity transcends the nation-state (Basch et al, 1994). However, the degree to which political identities that cross borders may be informed by political identities within borders remains a matter of considerable academic debate. It has been argued, for example, that transnational ties represent an impediment to the formation of national and local identifications; a danger to citizenship and integration in countries of settlement (Snel et al, 2006). Others argue that the reverse may also be true. The concept of 'political opportunity structure' has come to suggest that transnational practices take place in local settings; shaped by the particular opportunities and constraints present in different localities (Guarnizo and Smith, 1998; Mahler, 1998). This deviates from the majority of the literature on Muslim transnational relations in particular, in which the focus is very often on the characteristics of the population, or the characteristics of Islamic culture, in a way that ignores "the role of social and political circumstances in shaping how people make sense of the world and then act upon it" (Kundnani, 2014, p.10). This project considers the relationship between the local and transnational citizenship experiences of Bangladesh-origin Muslims in London and Birmingham. It investigates local experiences of citizenship in relation to a) different histories of settlement, b) different population profiles in terms of ethnic concentration, age, gender, socio-economic background, length of residence and naturalization status, and c) the different social and political environments of the two cities. The project will examine how these local political identities influence processes of transnational engagement, and consider how transnational identities and relationships in turn inform local political subjectivity. It will draw on the insights of 'political opportunity theory' but depart from it in two key respects. First, previous work has tended to construct migrant populations as homogenous groups and this project will devote greater attention to considering how issues play out differently according to gender, generation and class. Second, it will move beyond characterisations of citizenship based on 'formal status' to consider more 'substantive' dimensions of socio-political engagement - the social, cultural, political, or symbolic 'acts' that legal status may or may not make possible (Isin and Nielsen, 2008). This includes examination of access to education, employment, housing, healthcare and local political processes. In each location, 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 15 Bengali families in the form of same-sex parent/child dyads. The use of same-sex parent-child dyads will help draw out generational dimensions and focus the issues of continuity and change over time. In addition, 5 oral history interviews and 5 civil society interviews will be conducted in each location, producing a total of 80 interviews, complemented by ethnographic observation with the Bangladeshi community in both field sites. In the context of the on-going 'War on Terror', and an increasing political and media focus on a security threat that is 'home grown', the transnational practices of British Muslims have generated particular concern. This has fed into a range of recent policy proposals with respect to the treatment of British subjects who engage in transnational activities the Government does not support, and brings the constitutionally protected activities of a large number of people under increasing surveillance (Kundnani, 2014). In popular debate and the practice of public policy, therefore, transnational ties may affect local experiences of citizenship, but more research is needed to understand how transnational activity is situated in local social, cultural and...

Religious adherence varies widely between countries and regions across the globe. While in some countries, such as Bangladesh (majority-Muslim), Thailand (majority-Buddhist), and Nigeria (over 50 percent Muslim and 45 percent Christian), almost all people indicate that religion is important in their daily lives, in others such as Japan, Sweden, and Estonia, over three quarters of people do not believe that religion is important to them. Among countries with higher levels of religious adherence, there are some interesting cases. Predominantly Islamic countries, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, tend to show high levels of religious adherence. Italy, the historical center of the Catholic Church, records much higher levels of religiosity than other Western European countries, such as France, Germany, or the UK. The United States has almost double the number of people saying they believe religion is important in their daily life than not important. While religious adherence has declined over the past half century in the U.S., waves of immigration from predominantly Catholic countries, as well as the cultural impact of Evangelical Protestantism in some areas has meant that it is still one of the most religious Western countries. Israel, in spite of being an officially Jewish state, records roughly half of respondents being religious. Another notable trend is the tendency of some post-communist countries to show lower levels of religiosity, likely a result of the policy of state atheism under communism - Russia, Belarus, and Estonia all come towards the least religious end of the list for this reason, although Poland, or former-Soviet states in the Caucuses and Central Asia show much higher levels of religious adherence.

As of July 2024, 70.4 percent of the Malaysian population were classified as Bumiputera, 22.4 percent were classified as ethnic Chinese, and 6.5 percent as ethnic Indians. Those who do not fall under these three main ethnic groups are classified as ‘Other’. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society with three main ethnicities and language groups. Who are Malaysia’s Bumiputera? Bumiputera, meaning sons of the soil, is a term used to categorize the Malays, as well as the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, also known as orang asli, and the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak. As of July 2023, the Bumiputera share of the population in Sabah was 89 percent, while that in Sarawak was 76.1 percent. Thus, the incorporation of the states of Sabah and Sarawak during the formation of Malaysia ensured that the ethnic Malays were able to maintain a majority share of the Malaysian population. Bumiputera privileges and ethnic-based politics The rights and privileges of the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are enshrined in Article 153 of Malaysia’s constitution. This translated, in practice, to a policy of affirmative action to improve the economic situation of this particular group, through the New Economic Policy introduced in 1971. 50 years on, it is questionable whether the policy has achieved its aim. Bumiputeras still lag behind the other ethnic two major groups in terms of monthly household income. However, re-thinking this policy will certainly be met by opposition from those who have benefitted from it.

As of 2023, around 108.7 thousand pilgrims from Bangladesh benefitted from the Makkah Route Initiative before arriving by air in Saudi Arabia. The Makkah Router Initiative is an efficiency measure, where the Hajj pilgrims complete their entry procedure to Saudi Arabia at their home countries airport; and after arriving in Saudi Arabia are directly transported to their accommodation in Makkah or Madina after landing. The Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that is considered a mandatory religious duty by practicing Muslims.